Design Proposal

Problem Overview
Today, in order to explore the underwater world, we need to collect water samples and study them for different scientific reasons such as determining the pollution of the water. This has been one of the most challenging tasks of engineers who have tried to build and design submersible robots thatare going to be able to successfully complete the task of collecting water samples. However, by customizing a SeaPerch kit with different sensor it can be very easy to collect water samples. In this project, we are going to concentrate on how to build a submersible capable of determining the depth of the water and collecting water samples.

      Design Constraints    

The main objective of the design is to build the robot so that it could grab objects under the water and keep all the materials collected under water until the robot makes its way back up top. Only thing is that the depth of the water has to be kept on track so that the pH level can be differentiated by it. This makes all of these possible errors to be fixed and thus there exist few constraints building the robot. The major constraints are the container or the syringe that will collect the water sample and getting the measuring tool for depth of the sample's location. The container or the syringe has to be designed so that less and less of the materials would exit while transporting from under water to out of surface.

      Pre-Existing Solutions
     
There is no doubt that there are many methods for testing water and soil quality in regards to pollution.  Our goal is to not only test water and soil, but also to determine the exact depth in which the water and soil was collected from.  One method that does not yield this information includes a water testing pollution kit.  Global Water, which is a manufacture of water instrumentation, offer a test kit including things such as data sheets, handbooks and all the necessary apparatus and reagents to perform 50 tests.
The link to purchase this kit can be accessed here:  http://www.globalw.com/products/wq900.html
Our adviser, Jennifer Atchison, also mentioned a method in which long socks with a small cup at the end are thrown into the water.  The cup fills with water when being pulled and then the water can be tested from there.  Again, this method does not take into account the exact location of the water sample being tested.

 
   Design Goal
In this project, the design goal is going to be to successfully build a submersible robot that is going to be capable of measuring the depth and what is more important to collect water samples. Our group is going to be given a frame with a number of propellers and three motors that are going to make the SeaPerch go in horizontal and vertical directions. In addition, the strategy that our group is going to use to collect water samples is by placing a syringe in the front of submersible with a motor on it that is going to open the syringe, collect water and close it.  Another strategy to collect water samples is by building long socks with a small cup at the end. However, we are going to test both of these strategies and observe which one is more productive and precise in collecting water samples.

 
Project Deliverables
  •  The goal for this project is to have a finished sea-perch submersible able to move in   water and take samples (using four syringes and sensors) for quality testing.
    1-Collect research on previous sea-perch kits and pre-existing solutions.
    This will help us have a better idea on the project and improve the robot.
    2-Build sea-perch kit.                                                            
    As soon as we get the parts we will meet to design and assemble the robot.
    3-Sensor placement.
    Place sensors to detect depth, ph and temperature of river waters.
    4-Test robot on the water to make sure design is flawless and won’t fall apart when deep in the river.
    We will test the robot first in a pool operated by the hand held remote and check how effective will be the syringes to collect the water and fix any problems with the sensors as they occur.
    5-Collect data from all tests
    We will collect all data and analyze it to improve the project.
    6-Write final report and conclusion
    Final report will be written based on our testing data during the term and conclude on success of team and what changes we would recommend to the design.
    Our team plans to accomplish the list above by the end of the term which is week 10.
    Project Schedule
    • Week 1 - Create Blog
      Week 2 - Edit Blog, Decide the field that we are going to concentrate on the SeaPerch Kit
      Week 3 - Research, Design Proposal and Buit SeaPerch Kit
      Week 4 - Develop Modification Plan, Design attachable Water Sampling Device and Create a simple Program for SeaPerch and the water Sampling Device
      Week 5 - Develop Water Sampling Device and Develop programs for the SeaPreach kit and sampling Device
      Week 6 - Test Design, Construct Modified SeaPrech and Make improvement
      Week 7 - Test Design, Reconstruction of Device and SeaPrech
      Week 8 - Final Test of Design, Prototype completed, Collect Sample, Analyses data
      Week 9 - Work on Final Report and Presentation Slide.
      Week 10 - Presentation and Report due

       
      Project Budget
    1.     Materials needed to build sea-perch:
    2. Wires (2) - $20
    3. PVCs (4) - $30
    4. Engine - $50
    5. Remote Controller  - $30
    6. Depth finder - $50
    7. Syringes (4) - Price varies ( with shipping and handling around $10)
    8. Miscellaneous ( PH paper, cables and etc)

     


     

     
        
     

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